Orations |
Translator: C. D. Yonge
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| 217 |
Tu civem sceleratum et perditum Gallorum et Germanorum pecunia , peditatu , equitatu , copiis instrues ? Nullae istae excusationes sunt : ‘Meus amicus est .’ Sit patriae prius . ‘Meus cognatus .’ An potest cognatio propior ulla esse quam patriae in qua parentes etiam continentur ? ‘Mihi pecuniam tribuit .’ Cupio videre qui id audeat dicere . Quid autem agatur cum aperuero , facile erit statuere quam sententiam dicatis aut quam sequamini .
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Will you furnish a wicked and desperate citizen with an army of Gauls and Germans, with money, and infantry, and cavalry, and all sorts of resources? All these excuses are no excuse at all:—“He is a friend of mine.” Let him first be a friend of his country:—“ He is a relation of mine.” Can any relationship be nearer than that of one's country, in which even one's parents are comprised? “He has given me money:”—I should like to see the man who will dare to say that. But when I have explained what is the real object aimed at, it will be easy for you to decide which opinion you ought to agree with and adopt. |
| 218 |
Agitur utrum M . Antonio facultas detur opprimendae rei publicae , caedis faciendae bonorum , urbis , agrorum suis latronibus condonandi , populum Romanum servitute opprimendi , an horum ei facere nihil liceat . Dubitate quid agatis . ‘At non cadunt haec in Antonium . ' Hoc ne Cotylo quidem dicere auderet . Quid enim in eum non cadit qui , cuius acta se defendere dicit , eius eas leges pervertit quas maxime laudare poteramus ? Ille paludes siccare voluit ; hic omnem Italiam moderato homini , L . Antonio , dividendam dedit . Quid ? hanc legem populus Romanus accepit ? quid ? per auspicia ferri potuit ? Sed augur verecundus sine conlegis de auspiciis . Quamquam illa auspicia non egent interpretatione augurum ; Iove enim tonante cum populo agi non esse fas quis ignorat ? Tribuni plebis tulerunt de provinciis contra acta C . Caesaris : ille biennium , hi sexennium . Etiam hanc legem populus Romanus accepit ? quid ? promulgata fuit ? quid ? non ante lata quam scripta est ? quid ? non ante factum vidimus quam futurum quisquam est suspicatus ? Vbi lex Caecilia et Didia ,
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The matter at issue is, whether power is to be given to Marcus Antonius of oppressing the republic, of massacring the virtuous citizens, of plundering the city, of distributing the lands among his robbers, of overwhelming the Roman people in slavery; or, whether he is not to be allowed to do all this. Do you doubt what you are to do? “Oh, but all this does not apply to Antonius.” Even Cotyla would not venture to say that. For what does not apply to him? A man who, while he says that he is defending the acts of another, perverts all those laws of his which we might most properly praise. Caesar wished to drain the marshes: this man has given all Italy to that moderate man Lucius Antonius to distribute.—What? has the Roman people adopted this law?—What? could it be passed with a proper regard for the auspices? But this conscientious augur acts in reference to the auspices without his colleagues. Although those auspices do not require any interpretation—for who is there who is ignorant that it is impious to submit any motion to the people while it is thundering? The tribunes of the people carried laws respecting the provinces in opposition to the acts of Caesar; Caesar had extended the provisions of his law over two years; Antonius over six years. Has then the Roman people adopted this law? What? was it ever regularly promulgated? What? was it not passed before it was even drawn up? Did we not see the deed done before we even suspected that it was going to be done? Where is the Caecilian and Didian law? |
| 219 |
ubi promulgatio trinum nundinum , ubi poena recenti lege Iunia et Licinia ? Possuntne hae leges esse ratae sine interitu legum reliquarum ? Eccui potestas in forum insinuandi fuit ? Quae porro illa tonitrua , quae tempestas ! ut , si auspicia M . Antonium non moverent , sustinere tamen eum ac ferre posse tantam vim tempestatis , imbris , turbinum mirum videretur . Quam legem igitur se augur dicit tulisse non modo tonante Iove sed prope caelesti clamore prohibente , hanc dubitabit contra auspicia latam confiteri ?
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What is become of the law that such bills should be published on three market-days? What is become of the penalty appointed by the recent Junian and Licinian law? Can these laws be ratified without the destruction of all other laws? Has any one had a right of entering the forum? Moreover what thunder and what a storm that was! so that, even if the consideration of the auspices had no weight with Marcus Antonius, it would seem strange that he could endure and bear such exceeding violence of tempest, and rain and whirlwind. When therefore he, as augur, says that he carried a law while Jupiter was not only thundering, but almost uttering an express prohibition of it by his clamor from heaven, will he hesitate to confess that it was carried in violation of the auspices? |
| 220 |
Quid ? quod cum eo conlega tulit quem ipse fecit sua nuntiatione vitiosum , nihilne ad auspicia bonus augur pertinere arbitratus est ?
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What? does the virtuous augur think that it has nothing to do with the auspices, that he carried the law with the aid of that colleague whose election he himself vitiated by giving notice of the auspices? |
| 221 |
Sed auspiciorum nos fortasse erimus interpretes qui sumus eius conlegae : num ergo etiam armorum interpretes quaerimus ? Primum omnes fori aditus ita saepti ut , etiam si nemo obstaret armatus , tamen nisi saeptis revolsis introiri in forum nullo modo posset ; sic vero erant disposita praesidia ut quo modo hostium aditus urbe prohibentur castellis et operibus , ita ab ingressione fori populum tribunosque plebis propulsari videres . Quibus de causis eas leges quas M . Antonius tulisse dicitur omnis censeo per vim et contra auspicia latas eisque legibus populum non teneri . Si quam legem de actis Caesaris confirmandis deve dictatura in perpetuum tollenda deve coloniis in agros deducendis tulisse M . Antonius dicitur , easdem leges de integro ut populum teneant salvis auspiciis ferri placet . Quamvis enim res bonas vitiose per vimque tulerit , tamen eae leges non sunt habendae , omnisque audacia gladiatoris amentis auctoritate nostra repudianda est .
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But perhaps we, who are his colleagues, may be the interpreters of the auspices? Do we also want interpreters of arms? In the first place, all the approaches to the forum were so fenced round, that even if no armed men were standing in the way, still it would have been impossible to enter the forum except by tearing down the barricades. But the guards were arranged in such a manner, that, as the access of an enemy to a city is prevented, so you might in this instance see the burgesses and the tribunes of the people cut off by forts and works from all entrance to the forum. On which account I give my vote that those laws which Marcus Antonius is said to have carried were all carried by violence, and in violation of the auspices; and that the people is not bound by them. If Marcus Antonius is said to have carried any law about confirming the acts of Caesar and abolishing the dictatorship forever, and of leading colonies into any lands, then I vote that those laws be passed over again, with a due regard to the auspices, so that they may bind the people. For although they may be good measures which he passed irregularly and by violence, still they are not to be accounted laws, and the whole audacity of this frantic gladiator must he repudiated by our authority. |
| 222 |
Illa vero dissipatio pecuniae publicae ferenda nullo modo est per quam sestertium septiens miliens falsis perscriptionibus donationibusque avertit , ut portenti simile videatur tantam pecuniam populi Romani tam brevi tempore perire potuisse . Quid ? illi tot immanes quaestus ferendine quos M . Antoni exhausit domus ? Decreta falsa vendebat , regna , civitates , immunitates in aes accepta pecunia iubebat incidi . Haec se ex commentariis C . Caesaris , quorum ipse auctor erat , agere dicebat . Calebant in interiore aedium parte totius rei publicae nundinae ; mulier sibi felicior quam viris auctionem provinciarum regnorumque faciebat ; restituebantur exsules quasi lege sine lege ; quae nisi auctoritate senatus rescinduntur , quoniam ingressi in spem rei publicae recuperandae sumus , imago nulla liberae civitatis relinquetur .
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But that squandering of the public money can not possibly be endured by which he got rid of seven hundred millions of sesterces by forged entries and deeds of gifts, so that it seems an absolute miracle that so vast a sum of money belonging to the Roman people can have disappeared in so short a time. What? are those enormous profits to be endured which the household of Marcus Antonius has swallowed up? He was continually selling forged decrees; ordering the names of kingdoms and states, and grants of exemptions to be engraved on brass, having received bribes for such orders. And his statement always was, that he was doing these things in obedience to the memoranda of Caesar, of which he himself was the author. In the interior of his house there was going on a brisk market of the whole republic. His wife, more fortunate for herself than for her husband, was holding an auction of kingdoms and provinces: exiles were restored without any law, as if by law: and unless all these acts are rescinded by the authority of the senate, now that we have again arrived at a hope of recovering the republic, there will be no likeness of a free city left to us. |
| 223 |
Neque solum commentariis commenticiis chirographisque venalibus innumerabilis pecunia congesta in illam domum est , cum , quae vendebat Antonius , ea se ex actis Caesaris agere diceret , sed senatus etiam consulta pecunia accepta falsa referebat ; syngraphae obsignabantur ; senatus consulta numquam facta ad aerarium deferebantur . Huius turpitudinis testes erant etiam exterae nationes . Foedera interea facta , regna data , populi provinciaeque liberatae , ipsarumque rerum falsae tabulae gemente populo Romano toto Capitolio figebantur . Quibus rebus tanta pecunia una in domo coacervata est ut , si hoc genus pecuniae iure redigatur , non sit pecunia rei publicae defutura .
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Nor is it only by the sale of forged memoranda and autographs that a countless sum of money was collected together in that house, while Antonius, whatever he sold, said that he was acting in obedience to the papers of Caesar; but he even took bribes to make false entries of the resolutions of the senate; to seal forged contracts; and resolutions of the senate that had never been passed were entered on the records of that treasury. Of all this baseness even foreign nations were witnesses. In the meantime treaties were made; kingdoms given away; nations and provinces released from the burdens of the state; and false memorials of all these transactions were fixed up all over the Capitol, amid the groans of the Roman people. And by all these proceedings so vast a sum of money was collected in one house, that if it were all made available, the Roman people would never want money again. |
| 224 |
Legem etiam iudiciariam tulit , homo castus atque integer , iudiciorum et iuris auctor . In quo nos fefellit . Antesignanos et manipularis et Alaudas iudices se constituisse dicebat : at ille legit aleatores , legit exsules , legit Graecos —o consessum iudicum praeclarum ! o dignitatem consili admirandam ! Avet animus apud consilium illud pro reo dicere ! Cydam amo Cretensem , portentum insulae , hominem audacissimum et perditissimum . Sed fac non esse : num Latine scit ? num est ex iudicum genere et forma ? num , quod maximum est , leges nostras moresve novit ? num denique homines ? Est enim Creta vobis notior quam Roma Cydae . Dilectus autem et notatio iudicum etiam in nostris civibus haberi solet ; Cortynium vero iudicem quis novit aut quis nosse potuit ? Nam Lysiaden Atheniensem plerique novimus ; est enim Phaedri , philosophi nobilis , filius ; homo praeterea festivus , ut ei cum M ' . Curio consessore eodemque conlusore facillime possit convenire .
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Moreover he passed a law to regulate judicial proceedings, this chaste and upright man, this upholder of the tribunals and the law And in this he deceived us He used to say that he appointed men from the front ranks of the army, common soldiers men of the Alauda,as judges but he has in reality selected gamesters, he has selected exiles, he has selected Greeks. Oh the fine bench of judges Oh the admirable dignity of that council! I do long to plead in behalf of some defendant before that tribunal—Cyda of Crete; a prodigy even in that island; the most audacious and abandoned of men. But even suppose he were not so. Does he understand Latin? Is he qualified by birth and station to be a judge! Does he—which is most important—does he know any thing about our laws and manners? Is he even acquainted with any of the citizens? Why Crete is better known to you than Rome is to Cyda. In fact the selection and appointment of the judges has usually been confined to our own citizens. But who ever knew or could possibly have known this. Gortynian judge? For Lysiades, the Athenian, we most of us do know For he is the son of Phaedrus an eminent philosopher. And, besides, he is a witty man, so that he will be able to get on very well with Marcus Curius, who will be one of his colleagues, and with whom he is in the habit of playing. |
| 225 |
Quaero igitur , si Lysiades citatus iudex non responderit excuseturque Areopagites esse nec debere eodem tempore Romae et Athenis res iudicare , accipietne excusationem is qui quaestioni praeerit Graeculi iudicis , modo palliati , modo togati ? An Atheniensium antiquissimas leges negleget ? Qui porro ille consessus , di boni ! Cretensis iudex isque nequissimus . Quem ad modum ad hunc reus adleget , quo modo accedat ? Dura natio est . At Athenienses misericordes . Puto ne Curium quidem esse crudelem qui periculum fortunae cotidie facit . Sunt item lecti iudices qui fortasse excusabuntur ; habent enim legitimam excusationem , exsili causa solum vertisse nec esse postea restitutos .
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I ask if Lysiades, when summoned as a judge, should not answer to his name, and should have an excuse alleged for him that he is an Areopagite, and that he is not bound to act as a judge at both Rome and Athens at the same time, will the man who presides over the investigation admit the excuse of this Greekling judge, at one time a Greek, and at another a Roman? Or will he disregard the most ancient laws of the Athenians? And what a bench will it be, O ye good gods! A Cretan judge, and he the most worthless of men. Whom can a defendant employ to propitiate him? How is he to get at him? He comes of a hard nation. But the Athenians are merciful. I dare say that Curius, too, is not cruel, inasmuch as he is a man who is himself at the mercy of fortune every day. There are besides other chosen judges who will perhaps be excused. For they have a legitimate excuse, that they have left their country in banishment, and that they have not been restored since. |
| 226 |
Hos ille demens iudices legisset , horum nomina ad aerarium detulisset , his magnam partem rei publicae credidisset , si ullam speciem rei publicae cogitavisset ?
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And would that madman have chosen these men as judges, would he have entered their names as such in the treasury, would he have trusted a great portion of the republic to them, if he had intended to leave the least semblance of a republic? |
| 227 |
Atque ego de notis iudicibus dixi : quos minus nostis nolui nominare : saltatores , citharistas , totum denique comissationis Antonianae chorum in tertiam decuriam iudicum scitote esse coniectum . En causam cur lex tam egregia tamque praeclara maximo imbri , tempestate , ventis , procellis , turbinibus , inter fulmina et tonitrua ferretur , ut eos iudices haberemus quos hospites habere nemo velit . Scelerum magnitudo , conscientia maleficiorum , direptio eius pecuniae cuius ratio in aede Opis confecta est hanc tertiam decuriam excogitavit ; nec ante turpes iudices quaesiti quam honestis iudicibus nocentium salus desperata est . Sed illud os , illam impuritatem caeni fuisse ut hos iudices legere auderet ! quorum lectione duplex imprimeretur rei publicae dedecus : unum , quod tam turpes iudices essent ; alterum , quod patefactum cognitumque esset quam multos in civitate turpis haberemus . Hanc ergo et reliquas eius modi leges , etiam si sine vi salvis auspiciis essent rogatae , censerem tamen abrogandas : nunc vero cur abrogandas censeam , quas iudico non rogatas ?
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And I have been speaking of those judges who are known. Those whom you are less acquainted with I have been unwilling to name. Know then that dancers, harp-players, the whole troop, in fact, of Antonius's revelers, have all been pitchforked into the third decury of judges. Now you see the object of passing so splendid and admirable a law, amidst excessive rain, storm, wind, tempest, and whirlwind, amidst thunder and lightning; it was that he might have those men for our judges whom no one would like to have for guests. It is the enormity of his wickedness, the consciousness of his crimes, the plunder of that money of which the account was kept in the temple of Ops, which have been the real inventors of this third decury. And infamous judges were not sought for, till all hope of safety for the guilty was despaired of, if they came before respectable ones. But what must have been the impudence, what must have been the iniquity of a man who dared to select those men as judges, by the selection of whom a double disgrace was stamped on the republic: one, because the judges were so infamous; the other, because by this step it was revealed and published to the world how many infamous citizens we had in the republic? These then, and all other similar laws, I should vote ought to be annulled, even if they had been passed without violence, and with all proper respect for the auspices. But now why need I vote that they ought to be annulled, when I do not consider that they were ever legally passed? |
| 228 |
An illa non gravissimis ignominiis monumentisque huius ordinis ad posteritatis memoriam sunt notanda , quod unus M . Antonius in hac urbe post conditam urbem palam secum habuerit armatos ? quod neque reges nostri fecerunt neque ei qui regibus exactis regnum occupare voluerunt . Cinnam memini ; vidi Sullam ; modo Caesarem : hi enim tres post civitatem a L . Bruto liberatam plus potuerunt quam universa res publica . Non possum adfirmare nullis telis eos stipatos fuisse ; hoc dico : nec multis et occultis .
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Is not this, too, to be marked with the deepest ignominy, and with the severest animadversion of this order, so as to be recollected by all posterity, that Marcus Antonius. (the first man who has ever done so since the foundation of the city) has openly taken armed men about with him in this city? A thing which the kings never did, nor those men who, since the kings have been banished, have endeavored to seize on kingly power. I can recollect Cinna; I have seen Sulla; and lately Caesar. For these three men are the only ones since the city was delivered by Lucius Brutus, who have had more power than the entire republic. I can not assert that no man in their trains had weapons. |
| 229 |
At hanc pestem agmen armatorum sequebatur ; Crassicius , Mustela , Tiro , gladios ostentantes , sui similis greges ducebant per forum ; certum agminis locum tenebant barbari sagittarii . Cum autem erat ventum ad aedem Concordiae , gradus complebantur , lecticae conlocabantur , non quo ille scuta occulta esse vellet , sed ne familiares , si scuta ipsi ferrent , laborarent .
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This I do say, that they had not many, and that they concealed them. But this post was attended by an army of armed men. Classitius, Mustela, and Tiro, openly displaying their swords, led troops of fellows like themselves through the forum. Barbarian archers occupied their regular place in the army. And when they armed at the temple of Concord, the steps were crowded, the litters full of shields were arranged; not because he wished the shields to be concealed, but that his friends might not be fatigued by carrying the shields themselves. |
| 230 |
Illud vero taeterrimum non modo aspectu sed etiam auditu , in cella Concordiae conlocari armatos , latrones , sicarios ; de templo carcerem fieri ; opertis valvis Concordiae , cum inter subsellia senatus versarentur latrones , patres conscriptos sententias dicere . Huc nisi venirem Kalendis Septembribus , etiam fabros se missurum et domum meam disturbaturum esse dixit . Magna res , credo , agebatur : de supplicatione referebat . Veni postridie : ipse non venit . Locutus sum de re publica , minus equidem libere quam mea consuetudo , liberius tamen quam periculi minae postulabant . At ille homo vehemens et violentus , qui hanc consuetudinem libere dicendi excluderet —fecerat enim hoc idem maxima cum laude L . Piso xxx diebus ante —inimicitias mihi denuntiavit ; adesse in senatum iussit a . d . xiii . Kalendas Octobris . Ipse interea xvii dies de me in Tiburtino Scipionis declamitavit , sitim quaerens ; haec enim ei causa esse declamandi solet .
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And what was most infamous not only to see, but even to hear of, armed men, robbers, assassins were stationed in the temple of Concord; the temple was turned into a prison; the doors of the temple were closed, and the conscript fathers delivered their opinions while robbers were standing among the benches of the senators. And if I did not come to a senate-house in this state, he, on the first of September, said that he would send carpenters and pull down my house. It was an important affair, I suppose, that was to be discussed. He made some motion about a supplication. I attended the day after. He himself did not come. I delivered my opinion about the republic, not indeed with quite so much freedom as usual, but still with more than the threats of personal danger to myself made perhaps advisable. But that violent and furious man (for Lucius Piso had done the same thing with great credit thirty days before) threatened me with his enmity, and ordered me to attend the senate on the nineteenth of September. In the meantime he spent the whole of the intervening seventeen days in the villa of Scipio, at Tibur, declaiming against me to make himself thirsty. For this is his usual object in declaiming. |
| 231 |
Cum is dies quo me adesse iusserat , venisset , tum vero agmine quadrato in aedem Concordiae venit atque in me absentem orationem ex ore impurissimo evomuit . Quo die , si per amicos mihi cupienti in senatum venire licuisset , caedis initium fecisset a me ; sic enim statuerat ; cum autem semel gladium scelere imbuisset , nulla res ei finem caedendi nisi defetigatio et satietas attulisset . Etenim aderat Lucius frater , gladiator Asiaticus , qui myrmillo Mylasis depugnarat ; sanguinem nostrum sitiebat , suum in illa gladiatoria pugna multum profuderat . Hic pecunias vestras aestimabat ; possessiones notabat et urbanas et rusticas ; huius mendicitas aviditate coniuncta in fortunas nostras imminebat ; dividebat agros quibus et quos volebat ; nullus aditus erat privato , nulla aequitatis deprecatio . Tantum quisque habebat possessor quantum reliquerat divisor Antonius .
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When the day arrived on which he had ordered me to attend, then he came with a regular army in battle array to the temple of Concord, and out of his impure mouth vomited forth an oration against me in my absence. On which day, if my friends had not prevented me from attending the senate as I was anxious to do, he would have begun a massacre by the slaughter of me. For that was what he had resolved to do. And when once he had dyed his sword in blood, nothing would have made him leave off but pure fatigue and satiety. In truth, his brother, Lucius. Antonius, was present, an Asiatic gladiator, who had fought as a mirmillo, at Mylasa; he was thirsting for my blood, and had shed much of his own in that gladiatorial combat. He was now valuing our property in his mind, taking notice of our possessions in the city and in the country; his indigence united with his covetousness was threatening all our fortunes; he was distributing our lands to whomsoever and in whatever shares he pleased; no private individual could get access to him, or find any means to propitiate him, and induce him to act with justice. Every former propraetor had just so much property as Antonius left him after the division of his estate. |
| 232 |
Quae quamquam , si leges inritas feceritis , rata esse non possunt , tamen separatim suo nomine notanda censeo , iudicandumque nullos vii viros fuisse , nihil placere ratum esse quod ab eis actum diceretur .
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And although all these proceedings can not be ratified, if you annul his laws, still I think that they ought all to be separately taken note of, article by article; and that we ought formally to decide that the appointment of septemvirs was null and void; and that nothing is ratified which is said to have been done by them. |
| 233 |
M . vero Antonium quis est qui civem possit iudicare potius quam taeterrimum et crudelissimum hostem , qui pro aede Castoris sedens audiente populo Romano dixerit nisi victorem victurum neminem ? Num putatis , patres conscripti , dixisse eum minacius quam facturum fuisse ? Quid vero quod in contione dicere ausus est , se , cum magistratu abisset , ad urbem futurum cum exercitu , introiturum quotienscumque vellet , quid erat aliud nisi denuntiare populo Romano servitutem ? Quod autem eius iter Brundisium , quae festinatio , quae spes , nisi ad urbem vel in urbem potius exercitum maximum adduceret ? Qui autem dilectus centurionum , quae effrenatio impotentis animi ! cum eius promissis legiones fortissimae reclamassent , domum ad se venire iussit centuriones quos bene sentire de re publica cognoverat eosque ante pedes suos uxorisque suae , quam secum gravis imperator ad exercitum duxerat , iugulari coegit . Quo animo hunc futurum fuisse censetis in nos quos oderat , cum in eos quos numquam viderat tam crudelis fuisset , et quam avidum in pecuniis locupletium qui pauperum sanguinem concupisset ? quorum ipsorum bona , quantacumque erant , statim suis comitibus compotoribusque discripsit .
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But who is there who can consider Marcus Antonius a citizen, rather than a most foul and barbarous enemy, who, while sitting in front of the temple of Castor, in the hearing of the Roman people, said that no one should survive except those who were victorious? Do you suppose, O conscript fathers, that he spoke with more violence than he would act? And what are we to think of his having ventured to say that, after he had given up his magistracy, he should still be at the city with his army? that he should enter the city as often as he pleased? What else was this but threatening the Roman people with slavery? And what was the object of his journey to Brundusium? and of that great haste? What was his hope, except to lead that vast army to the city or rather into the city? What a proceeding was that selection of the centurions! What unbridled fury of an intemperate mind! For when those gallant legions had raised an outcry against his promises he ordered those centurions to come to him to his house whom he perceived to be loyally attached to the republic and then he had them all murdered before his own eyes and those of his wife whom this noble commander had taken with him to the army What disposition do you suppose that this man will display toward us whom he hates when he was so cruel to those men whom he had never seen? And how covetous will he be with respect to the money of rich men when he thirsted for even the blood of poor men? whose property such as it was he immediately divided among his satellites and boon companions. |
| 234 |
Atque ille furens infesta iam patriae signa a Brundisio inferebat ; cum C . Caesar deorum immortalium beneficio , divina animi , ingeni , consili magnitudine , quamquam sua sponte eximiaque virtute , tamen approbatione auctoritatis meae colonias patris adiit , veteranos milites convocavit , paucis diebus exercitum fecit , incitatos latronum impetus retardavit . Postea vero quam legio Martia ducem praestantissimum vidit , nihil egit aliud nisi ut aliquando liberi essemus ; quam est imitata quarta legio .
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And he in a fury was now moving his hostile standards against his country from Brundusium when Caius Caesar by the kind inspiration of the immortal gods, by the greatness of his own heavenly courage, and wisdom, and genius, of his own accord, indeed and prompted by his own admirable virtue, but still with the approbation of my authority went down to the colonies which had been founded by his father; convoked the veteran soldiery; in a few days raised an army and checked the furious advance of this bandit. But after the Martial legion saw this admirable leader, it had no other thoughts but those of securing our liberty. And the fourth legion followed its example. |